Recently I had the pleasure (opportunity) to watch the Blockbuster movie ‘A Star is Born’. It wasn’t my choice so to speak, so much as a demand from she who must be obeyed.

The most interesting thing I found about this movie, was that it acts as a really good metaphor for the Premier League exploits of one Southampton Football Club, If you squint a bit, and not take this blog too seriously, not get bogged down in ‘facts’ and take a monumental leap of faith.

Act 1

The movie starts well, and tells the tale of a talented but unfancied singer getting plucked from obscurity and into the limelight, doing so with a style and grace that brings the attention of the world upon them. Much like the arrival of Saints in the Premier League back in 2012. It’s fair to say that the initial exploits of our beloved club in the top flight were thrilling, unexpected and downright rude to the established elite. Under Pochettino and then Koeman, we made unprecedented leaps of improvement, propelling us into the limelight, and we did so with an exciting mix of youthful enthusiasm, a disregard for the establishment and an exciting style of in your face attack minded football.

Many stars were born, and like in the movie their heads were soon turned for ‘better’ things, while the creator refused to move on.

Act 2

The middle of the movie, and frankly the part where it lost me. When I wasn’t close to sleep, I was witnessing the mediocre section of the story, the bit where not a lot happens, where they have decided the story doesn’t need to excite anymore, it just needs to be there.

Very much what it feels like to be a Saints fan at the moment. For every star that went, the ability to replace them for better/as good as seems to have gone, a string of drab characters have come in and made no improvement on the man before them. It’s dull to watch and expectation weakens week by week, Saints are less challenging in the Premier League, they are merely existing (just).

Our identity as a club has gone. We used to be giant slayers, fantastic recruiters and promoters of youth. We are none of those things anymore. When was the last time we beat one of the big teams? When was the last time we brought in a player with the star quality of a Mane or a Pelle? When was the last time an Academy player got an extended run in the first team?

Act 3

The End, and a pretty harrowing one at that. As one star moves on and shines, the ones left behind stagnate and rot, and ultimately burn out.

For Saints, you wonder what the future is? Last season was a disaster and one you would have hoped the club would do all in their power to prevent happening again, but here we are, worse off points wise than this time last year. It feels like the club is stagnating, and being left to die. Is it the manager’s fault? Perhaps, but perhaps not, he can only work with what he is given. In Danny Ings, we have improved in one area that was poor last year, but defensively we look as bad as we have been in our Premier League history. What are Armstrong, Elyanoussi and Vestegaard bringing to the table? I’m of the opinion this is our weakest Premier League squad so far, and the interest level of fans is waning. Where has the excitement gone?

Something needs to change at executive level for me, the support for the manager no longer exists, though of course, they are an easy target for blame.

The End

If Saints don’t heed the warnings of previous experiences, the only way is down, and the most frustrating thing, like the movie, it’s a remake. We’ve been here before.

A Star is Born/Southampton Football Club 2/5 stars. Not worth the popcorn.

Chris

p.s. Bugger. I’ve just realised this works better with ‘A Christmas Carol’, so just read it again, with the Ghost of Christmas Past, Future etc. You get the idea.

We are one week away from the new Premier League season, the 27th of it’s kind since the financial revolution surrounding the ‘people’s’ game changed football forever.

It also happens to be the 20th Premier League campaign for Southampton Football Club. An achievement to be proud of for a club that has never been level in terms of resources with the giants of the era. Even more so when you realise that of the previous 19 campaigns, 7 have resulted in top 10 finishes. A club once synonymous with relegation battles actually has more mid to top half Premier League league finishes. Our average league position in the Premier League is 12.8th which given the restrictions placed on us by the Dell, the perennial harvesting of our best talent, the infliction of messrs Branfoot, Wigley, Gray, Redknapp, Pellegrino and Puel, a financial meltdown and a self inflicted long term hiatus can truly be seen as a decent return.

In that time we’ve provided one of the most entertaining players ever to grace the modern game who dominated the goal of the season competition, continuously produced exciting young British talent who have become mainstays in the best league in the world, masterminded accumulator busting shocks, pulled off breathtaking great escapes in the face of impossible odds, won 8-0, consistently taken advantage of Liverpool’s desperation for a title, gambled on players and managers others wouldn’t, #greykitgate, and of course, gave the world the Ali Dia affair and mocked ourselves ever since.

Say what you like about Saints, but the Premier League is always richer with us in it than without. Always a conundrum, constantly written off, proudly representing South of London in the top flight.

The ‘Premier’ club on the South Coast in name and stature. How will the 20th Premier League campaign go? Who knows? With Saints we could easily be pushing for 7th or praying for 17th. The one thing that can be guaranteed, is that with the exception of 2016/17, it will never be boring.

“I think people should recognise that I am also one of the best bloggers in the world and not just talk nonsense.”

For Southampton fans, this World Cup maybe best remembered as the time our Dejan Lovren schadenfreude went global. After the calamitous Croat made the ridiculous claim of being one of the best defenders in the world, you just kind of knew it would be followed by a 4th defeat in 4 finals for the hapless head wanderer.

I mean, the best defenders in the world don’t say in interviews ‘I’m one of the best defenders in the world. It’s the same as when a bloke in the pub says they used to be in the SAS. By the very nature of the fact that they are telling you… They weren’t.

We should have moved on from this Lovren hate to be honest, but the bloke doesn’t make it easy. The arrogance and delusion mixed with his prolific record of losing makes him a sitting duck for mockery.

Credit where it’s due though, he achieved something I didn’t think he could. He managed to have me cheering against a rather likeable Croatia team in favour of France. FRANCE. I wanted drastically overrated walking meme Paul Pogba to walkaway with a World Cup winners medal, trophy dab and all, more than I wanted to see glee on the face of little Luka Modric. Remarkable.

But what was better than one of the best defender’s in the world conceding four goals in the final?

The ‘It’s Coming Home’ Movement.

I, like many others lost faith in the England team a long time ago, and it’s difficult to describe what actually happened, but Harry Kane’s last minute winner against Tunisia seemingly turned everything on it’s head. I haven’t experienced English support like this since France ’98. Pubs in full swing, singing and a real sense of unison. The type of support was even different, less ‘Ten German Bombers’ and more Atomic Kitten.

On the pitch, we had players we could believe in again, and off it we had one of the greatest meme takeovers the internet has ever seen. The ‘It’s coming home’ memes were fantastic, and obviously only ever a subtle dig at ourselves, yet of course it was construed as arrogance by the ‘Anyone but England’ brigade. Divs.

We got to the semi final. That was far beyond our expectations, yet at that point you have to start believing you have a chance of winning it right? Arrogance again apparently.

Ultimately, football didn’t come home, but a restored sense of national pride did. It really was a fantastic few weeks to be a football supporter, even an English one.

This is always one of the most fun and interesting times of the year for me. Reading through the voting forms is always a funny experience, and captures the melancholy/terrace humour of being a Saints fan perfectly.

Again, the response has been great, so thank you to everybody who took the time, especially after a torrid season.

Everyone associated with Saints covets one of these precious trophies*:-

And now we find out who has go their hands on one!

Here are YOUR winners…

Player of the Year

This was calculated like so:- Each player got 2 points for a vote as winner and one point for a vote as runner up. Here are all those that received votes and their points percentage.

Usually that would be the end of the Ali’s, but I realised today that i had forgotten to award the Ali Dia services to Southampton Award this year to mark the site’s 8th birthday. So to that end here is your winner (explanations not really necessary):-

The 2018 Ali Dia Services to Southampton Award goes to……

Gareth Bale.

So that concludes this season’s Ali’s! Congratulations and thanks to everyone who voted and massive congratulations to all the winners!.A big thank you to Alistair Downs for the Photoshop wizardry! Keep the faith!

A difficult season for Saints, another decent cup run, but an undeniably disastrous league campaign that was almost fatal. But. It’s that time of year again and I have made the decision to do the awards anyway, if only due to the tough competition for comedy moment!

Forget the ‘official awards’ now it’s time for the only ones the real fans have any interest in! The Ali’s.

Who has stood out? Who will win one of these coveted trophies?

You decide.

If you want to have your say on who should be honoured, just fill out the following form, all votes will be anonymous and collated with the winners revealed at the end of the season!

For the ‘Player of the Year’ award, a winner vote get’s the player 2 points. A runner up vote gets them 1 point. The player with the highest combined total will get the ‘Ali’.

Ever fancied living out your dreams? Walking out on to the hallowed turf at the home of football perhaps? Playing the killer pass that allows Brett Ormerod to steer home? Getting on the end of a Jason Dodd cross? Maybe you’d like to be on the receiving end of a Benali tackle? Or simply fancy the perfect view of Le Tissier’s grace?

Well now you can, and what’s more, with the help of this site you can get 5% off of the cost of doing so!

Play at St Mary’s with Saints legends!

Matt Le Tissier, Jason Dodd, Francis Benali and Brett Ormerod will be lacing up their boots once again to take to the St Mary’s pitch for a one-off four team tournament, and you could be playing alongside them!

Play With A Legend, the events company which brings you closer to your footballing heroes, is running the event for the third year at St Mary’s. The organisation was co-founded by Perry Groves, best known for his time at Arsenal (and Saints too of course!), who wanted to give fans the chance to play on pitch with their favourite ex-players.

The four team tournament will take place on 14th May from 6pm, on the pitch at St. Mary’s where you can get either 45 or 90 minutes of action, plus your own personalised kit, enjoy post-match drinks with the legends and have your photo taken. Friends and family are invited to purchase audience tickets to cheer you on from the stands too.

So, the Saints board finally caught up with the rest of us and lost patience with the Argentine Branfoot and gave him his marching orders (#youmarchon) after the frankly diabolical display at Newcastle. Too little too late? Perhaps, but the last couple of days has felt like a fresh start, and for the first time in a long time there would appear to be hope.

Now he is gone, I wish Mr. Pellegrino no ill will, seems like a (too) nice bloke, just wildly out of his depth. I did ‘celebrate’ his sacking though, and I feel no guilt in doing so. This isn’t a bloke on £15k a year who has just been made redundant from the local factory as the result of some Tory inflicted austerity scheme, who now has to worry about how he pays his rent and feed his kids. This is a highly paid man (no doubt already comfortably off from his playing career) who showed incompetence from day one. Worse than that, he didn’t learn and was loyal to the end to his turgid style and failing system. What’s more he didn’t even have the decency to resign when it was plain to see he was taking us down. He will have received a handsome pay off for his trouble and will now be having a lovely holiday in a luxurious resort. With respect Mauricio, I wish you luck in your future endeavours, but I am glad you were fired, please don’t ever darken our door again.

This current Saints board had never been more under pressure. They left the sacking of el confundido far too late, he should have gone after the Leicester debacle and in not removing him sooner have left us staring into the abyss with a very difficult run in. This is self inflicted pressure, and meant the job of replacing him was not an easy one. You could argue the logic behind the appointments of both Pellegrino and Claude Puel, both were employed in pre-season, and both looked like long term options, sadly both failed. Employing someone with 8 games to save the season is a different kettle of fish altogether. Premier League experience is absolutely essential, we aren’t in a position to be letting someone learn as they go, and in Mark Hughes we got the best available.

While Pellegrino floundered on the touchline, it cannot escape attention that the players were not performing to their ability, and that may have been a question of motivation. What we have now in Hughes is someone who knows this league, knows how to organise a team and won’t accept dropping standards of his squad.

To those who I’ve seen complaining about the appointment, I always ask the same question? Who would you have brought in? You can rule out the currently employed. Why would they risk it, when they can wait until the end of the season and see if Saints are still interested, and more importantly what division they are in?

That leaves the unemployed, and risking someone without experience of the Premier League would be one risk too far. The current Saints board are 1 for 2 when it comes to appointing foreign first timers, 1 for 3 would be relegation and their own positions untenable.

Hughes’ record in the Premier League is decent, there is no doubt about that, and despite a poor spell at car crash club QPR and this season with Stoke he would firmly be considered a middle tier manager, and here’s a newsflash. We aren’t a middle tier club at the moment, we are lower tier and in danger of being out of the top flight. Lest we forget, that in removing Hughes, Stoke have ended up with Paul Lambert. A fate worse than death in my opinion. The point is right now we don’t have a ‘project’ to sell to a fashionable foreign manager like we have had in the past, we are in a desperate situation. We should be grateful Hughes has put his reputation (never having been relegated) on the line for us.

Yesterday’s press conference gave everyone a lift. A football man, talking a good game and not the riddle messr’s Puel and Pellegrino gave us. We need grit and we need fight from our squad, they have the talent. Hughes is the man to get it.

It’s time for the fans to stop the infighting and the ‘woe is me’ attitude to go. This is what being a Saints fan is all about. We had it far to easy for far too long and we got comfortable and we got entitled and we got lazy. On Sunday Mark Hughes will start his reign with a trip to league one Wigan and the potential to take us to an FA Cup Semi-Final and as we know from last season once you get a semi anything can happen. Then it is 8 cup finals.

Get behind the manager, get behind the team and as always keep the faith.

Yesterday Saints beat Watford 1-0. Perhaps not the most inspiring or dominating victory, but a victory nonetheless, and passageway into the 5th round of the FA Cup.

I opened up Twitter this morning to see what the assembled masses had made of our performance, the manager’s tactical decisions, maybe even an honest appraisal of the striker that was promised and how he will save our season.

But no. The first so many tweets I saw were all melancholy teenage angst surrounding the performance of Jay Rodriguez for West Brom. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m sure it was an impressive showing from the former Saints forward, as he bagged a brace and duly put a van Dijk inspired (snigger) Liverpool defence to the sword and out of the cup, but should it be the primary focus of the Southampton support?

It’s an odd phenomenon amongst our fanbase, especially the social media wing of it that certain players are elevated to the status of deity when they move on.

If you read the words of our fans on twitter today, with no previous knowledge of Rodriguez and his time with Saints you would form the impression that he had left the club against it’s wishes on the back of a goalscoring season the likes of which could barely be believed. The reality of course is that he never looked the same after his horrific injury against Man City and scored just five league goals in the three and a bit years that followed it.

It’s called Jack Cork syndrome. Cork, like Rodriguez was a good player for Saints and a decent servant, but as the club moved on in terms of the quality of player it attracted his playing time reduced and at what was the right time for both him and the club he was moved on. Both Cork & Rodriguez went to clubs where they were more likely to play and neither pulled up any trees. Yet, every time they put in a decent shift for their new clubs, the Saints fans unite in their bemoaning of ‘the one that got away’ and how shortsighted the club were in letting them go.

The fact is the club have improved on both those players. Several times.

If you stop being blinkered and analysing one off games you will see that they aren’t actually being consistently brilliant for their new clubs either and there was a reason Saints let them go. Despite a considerably higher amount of game time for West Brom, Jay Rod has scored just four league goals for the Baggies, Austin has six for Saints in a third of the minutes on the pitch!

I don’t have an issue with still liking those players, or appreciating what they did in their time at the club, but do we need the constant outpouring of support every time they have a good game? We don’t put as much energy into supporting the players that are currently at the club!

I don’t know what it is about them that makes them so universally popular still, perhaps it is because they are clean cut young English lads? I don’t know. But the time for them to go was right.

We’ve been here before. We hoped we’d never be here again, but the ever growing competitive nature of the Premier League means that for a number of reasons 2017/18 is one that will not sit comfortably in the memory whatever the outcome, unlikely FA Cup win aside.

Before I proceed I want to make my position clear. Were I in an executive position on the board of Southampton Football club Mauricio Pellegrino would be out of a job by now, in fact he’d have gone immediately after the frankly embarrassing Leicester thumping at St. Mary’s. Having said that I am prepared to accept that while his tactical naivety is the overwhelming factor in our current decline, it isn’t the only variable that has seen us slip into a relegation battle like it’s the mid-90’s.

But let’s start with the manager. Like it or not, the manager’s one and only remit really is to get results and he isn’t doing that. Saints have a habit of starting games well, which suggests he isn’t so tactically unaware, the problem seems to come once we are in front. His immediate thought process seems to be to stop what was working and settle for what we have. Sitting back and inviting pressure has only gone one way so far, three points have rapidly evaporated.

Great goal Sofiane, but we did discuss holding out for a point. So…

My other concern on the manager is his response to changes by the opposition or lack thereof. The Watford game is a perfect example of this. Saints were two goals to the good and comfortable against a side themselves in disarray, but their introduction of Troy Deeney changed the dynamic and Saints were on the back foot. We didn’t react (one like for like sub in the 63rd minute) and although there was a huge element of fortune in the Hornet’s equaliser, it had been coming and their reading of the situation meant they gained a point, our misunderstanding of it meant we dropped two.

We have won just four league games all season, and barring an element of fortune against West Ham, a Forster masterclass at Selhurst Park and a moment of individual Boufal brilliance it could so easily be one. I know it’s not as simple as that, and we could analyse our draws and defeats and make a case for where we deserved more, but the fact of the matter is, our only truly convincing league win this season was a home thrashing of Everton, who themselves were in free-fall (something they have rectified with a new manager).

But. I think we have to accept that the manager isn’t going, if there was any chance he was under scrutiny by the board then surely they’d have made their move by now? So assuming it isn’t coming then we have to look at what else is going wrong.

I’ve seen many question the qualities of the squad, but to me this is poppycock and a compelling argument as to why the manager has failed. This is not a bottom three squad. No way. I will argue that with anyone. We have a better and more talented group of players than 5 or 6 clubs currently above us in the league. Is it as strong as it was in previous seasons, no I don’t think it is, but departures have weakened it, not destroyed it completely.

We do have an issue with a lack of depth. An injury to Charlie Austin (given his history, something that shouldn’t have taken anyone by surprise) and our already lacking goals scored column becomes almost non-existent. A caveat to this though is that we do have a talented striker not getting game time? If we go down with Manolo Gabbiadini as unused sub we’ll be a laughing stock.

The same could be said for Mario Lemina. The lad looks like a real talent yet seems to be out of favour, if you add Sofiane Boufal to the mix that is three of our better players getting splinters.

The mis-use of Steven Davis is frustrating to see also. For me Davis is a consistently good performer in a Saints shirt, if he is played as part of the support three. He isn’t a defensive midfielder, and always plays poorly when asked to be one. The fact that he has been used there when Romeu, Lemina and Hojbjerg are available is baffling to say the least.

Decent. Team.

Football isn’t rocket science. Play your best players, and in the position they are most suited to play.

The biggest factor and the one that is effecting everybody is ‘the fear’.

‘And the vision that was planted in my brain,Still remains.’

There is a trepidation amongst the players, coaching staff and fans alike that is worrying to say the least, and the capitulations from winning positions reek of 2004/05 and the last time we dropped out of the top flight.

The atmosphere on and off the pitch is the same now as it was then. As most of you will know my physical presence at games is limited now due to my living abroad, but I did have the ‘pleasure’ of being at the Huddersfield game. Again Saints led and looked comfortable, but the Terriers equaliser was met with ‘the fear’, and we might consider ourselves lucky to have come away with a point. Immediately the players heads dropped and the attitude of the crowd changed, like the outcome was now a foregone conclusion.

Overcoming ‘the fear’ will be key to our survival this season, and that is where the crowd plays it’s part. We are Southampton, this isn’t our first relegation battle. We have to draw on that experience, and those of us who, like me, were there for the regular anxiety of the 90’s will tell you that one of the reasons we were very good at getting out of it was the backing of the crowd.

Nobody wanted to come to the Dell in that situation because the crowd backed it’s players and got on top of the opposition and we have to make sure St. Mary’s is the same. Especially when we entertain those around us. It’s all very well getting up for Spurs, but just like the players, we as fans have to take the same attitude into games against Brighton etc.

And please. Get off Nathan Redmond’s back. A promising player who was recognised by England looks a shell of his former self, and some of the abuse he has received while other under-performers seemingly get off scot-free is frankly disgusting.

I know it’s frustrating to watch at times, but to a point you are stuck with the manager and the players, so back them. Save your discontent for the end of the season come what may.

As fans our input is only vocal but it is important. Don’t let the players be faced with the sound of silence.